Messages - chyll

A tad minimalistic, but still representative of the impressive music they both contain. Favourite cover art here is the Burzum and Aske compilation (already mentioned), Dethrone The Son Of God (which has been referred to as 'humorous' several times, anyone have this impression?), The Celtic Winter, Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, Dawn Of The Black Hearts and the first black metal records from Darkthrone.

I also used to spend considerable amounts of time just staring at the old Slayer album covers and Emperor's ITNe while listening to the music, back in my early teens. Such perfect marriages of music and artwork have rarely been achieved, even in the fantastical/ mythological realms explored in much metal.

The problem with expressing emotion in music is that it frequently manifests itself into the 'I love you' syndrome cliche', as you suggest, but then underground metal has a wide range of emotions that would probably be considered negative by normals - the epic heroism in Bathory, the wistful nostalgia in Burzum, Immortal's warlike evocations and Incantation's grim spite and misanthropy. Still, they are emotions and healthy, arguably constructive, ones at that.

Romanticism is based upon expression of emotions, sometimes 'morbid' and 'decadent' (depending on the lsitener's background), and metal obviously builds on this tenet. I'd be hard-pressed to listen to music that does away with emotion, which is why I stay away from minimal techno and analogous genres in the first place (which are far more alienating and irrelevant than even the blandest metal).

Too many bands are overrated and more will be as populism takes over black metal completely. Ignore the hype and stick to the classics which never disappoint. Better still, branch into that music which has endured for centuries since it was conceived.

Dogs attack and disrupt rare birds nests on the marshes where I live. Likewise, cats kill rare species of mice. Fuck pets.

You are probably speaking about feral individuals, not actual pets. Owning pets entails the responsibility to reduce the animal's impact on local ecology, which is what most carnivore owners don't realize.

Democracy lowers standards because the majority of people are by nature not willing to think about making right, unselfish choices. The passivity (not only in voting) you talk about is just one symptom of dumbed-down civilisation.

All science is, is a set of consistent observed principles applied to our world, so philosophy and religion are forms of science just as much as physics or biology. All science is the observed truth on how our universe operates.

I'd appreciate if you could elaborate further on this. Science applies objective constants and theorems that make it possible to predict properties of potential unknowns, philosophy and religion are subjective cultural takes on objective reality.

Philosophy may be the darker underbelly of science, but ultimately it shies away from the quantitative and qualitative notions that explain the physical universe.

Anyway, this phenomenon will increase exponentially in the coming years, rivalling and probably exceeding international terrorism in frequency and intensity. It doesn't take Nostradamus to see where everyone is headed at this rate.

A couple of the LLN projects indeed do have a striking 'uniquely' romanticist approach to black metal, most notably Mutiilation and some of the more developed songs from Vlad Tepes. Belketre is worth mentioning, as is Antaeus, but on the whole I do not think these four bands are stylistically close enough to warrant France its own unique 'brand' of black metal.

Polish BM had its great moments as well, but then again they are centred on just three or four exceptional musicians, while Finland's black metal sounds more like hardcore with death metal infusions delivered at high speed.

On another note, Germany does not need to musically prove its worth in black metal specifically, moreso after having produced Bach, Beethoven, Schulze, Gottsching, Kraftwerk, Neu! and Tangerine Dream.

There were very few 'black metal movements' and stylistic geographical takes on black metal around the world. What you said for Germany can be said for any other European region with the exception of Norway, Sweden and Greece.

Stockhausen's works enforce the subject to listen to music and sound layers in a way which few artistic works can, perhaps in an execution similar to what Autechre achieve on the 'Gantz Graf' title track, or to what John Cage illustrates with the tongue-in-cheek 4'33'', or to what King Crimson play around with on three-fifths of 'Red'. Granted, the results may not always be spectacular or worthwhile as composition per se (one might want to classify it as meta-music instead), but the power and sense-of-wonder inherent to pieces like Kontakte or Mantra is unmistakable.

What I was hinting at is the fact that technology depends on civilization, and despite the huge influence and undeniable importance organizations like ANUS and CORRUPT have, they are a medium made actual by that same technology.

Causality and logic show that if civilization ceases to exist, all of its products including the internet and information technology will similarly cease to exist.

What needs to be done to see ANUS/ CORRUPT alive in 20 years' time, therefore, is to transpose the ideas and purposes of ANUS/ CORRUPT and similar organizations into real ways-of-life and action, thankfully some individuals and groups have started to do this already. That way the spirit of ANUS (which is not actually of ANUS but that of every reasonable social organism, which the Western world is not) will live on, even if the original medium in which it was created is now defunct.